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These Women Are Making Disney Princesses More Inclusive

By
Emily
Rekstis
| December 16, 2017

Photo Credits: Barcroft Media / Contributor/ Getty Images

As much as everyone loves Disney princesses, there’s no denying they represent seriously unrealistic body standards. Although they’ve become more ethnically inclusive, princesses remain incredibly thin and blemish-free. Now, people are standing up to this unhealthy image.

Body positive bloggers Michelle Elman and Amy Wooldridge are spreading a much more inclusive message. During a recent photo shoot, they dressed up as Snow White and Rapunzel and showed how beautiful princesses can be in different shapes and sizes.

"WE NEED FAT PRINCESSES," Elman wrote in her Instagram caption. She goes on to explain how she struggled growing up with Disney princesses representing the epitome of beauty. She notes how Scar from The Lion King made her feel worst about the scars she could not help. "Think about how many villains have scars!"

Then, when she got older and wanted to dress up as a princess, she couldn’t find costumes in her size. She says it was even hard for her to find the ones she’s wearing during the shoot. "I actually wanted to be Jasmine," she wrote. "So I could be a scarred princess, but no surprises that people still continue to assume fat women don’t wear crop tops."

Instead of girls growing up wishing they looked like the princess, she points out how amazing it would be for girls to instead be excited that they see a princess who looks like them. “How incredible would it be if the epitome of beauty and the envy of many little girls wasn’t so equated to thinness?

A post shared by amyeloise (@amyeloisew) on Dec 12, 2017 at 10:00am PST

Wooldridge also shared her story in the caption of the image she posted to her Instagram. "It didn’t escape me that all the princesses were a very small dress size and were considered absolutely beautiful," she wrote. "And that the fatter (and thus 'uglier') characters were the villains or the comic relief."

Although it's hard to change the past, this inspirational shoot is a step in the right direction to change the overall mentality on beauty standards.

Keep scrolling to check out more beautiful images from their inspirational shoot and the strong, powerful messages they write with each.